The Thoughts by the Pool
by weirdsquint
Summary: Oneshot post-episode 8 of season 6. Booth goes over to Brennan's pool. Is he comfortable? How does it make him feel? Find out in my ramblings inside :


**A/N: After the "The Twisted Bones in the Melted Truck" I really could not resist. Here is some ramblings on Booth's perspective during a pool visit with Parker.**

**Sorry it's short and sort of unintelligible but the idea wouldn't leave me alone. Please let me know if you find any mistakes, English is not my first language and I don't have a beta-reader, although I would love to have one :)**

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Parking the SUV in front of the apartment complex I can't help but feel a little weird about this. I didn't want to come in the first place but Parker had been talking about it for the past three weekends and every phone call in between. I thought, at least with her being out of town, I wouldn1t feel so… Guilty. That was the word, even though I was not willing to admit it. I know she won't be joining us today, and somehow that makes it feel even worse. Wrong, even.

In the elevator my memory suddenly flashes me with snapshots from visits to the pool before our 7 month long sabbatical. It brings a smile to my face, albeit a bittersweet one. I am happy now. Probably happier than I was back then, but I still miss it, in spite of how painful it got sometimes.

As much of a jerk as that makes me sound, I am glad that Hannah had to work this Saturday and couldn't come along with me and my son. It's bad enough that we're here when my relationship with Bones isn't as comfortable as it used to be, but to bring my girlfriend over to _her_ pool… It maybe my perpetual Catholic guilt talking but it sounds a lot like cheating.

That thought is enough to make me stop halfway between the elevator and the pool. Who would I be cheating?

"Come on, Dad. Quit stalling."

Parker's eager voice propels me forward but is sadly not enough to pull my racing thoughts to halt. As he quickly sheds his shirt and flip flops I'm still musing over the unsettling feeling that thinking about my partner and my girlfriend inevitably brings.

As I watch him run towards the pool and jump in cannonball-style the grin that almost splits my face in two is uncontrollable. The smile on his as he resurfaces would be enough to make me forget my heart's turmoil had it not been for the comment he made.

"I wish Bones was here. Her cannonball is still _way_ better than mine."

He keeps on swimming around and playing in the water as if nothing else matters in the world. Sometimes I envy my son and his childlike freedom. I snort derisively thinking I'm not even free inside my own mind.

While I am still immersed in self-deprecation and guilt for missing Bones as much as my son, my cell phone vibrates to life on the white pool table in front of me. On the screen I see a beautiful blonde flashing pretty green eyes and a bright smile at me.

The guilt is enough to make me ignore the call only to feel another wave of it wash over me for doing so.

I'm still sitting there absently watching Parker play a game of improvised water polo with a younger kid that lives in the building for God knows how long when my phone chirps again. This time it's a text. Not from a blonde with green eyes and a smile, but from an auburn haired beauty with blue eyes with a timid, Monalisa-like smile.

_I hope you and Parker are having fun on the pool. This conference is not as intellectually stimulating as I had originally __thought it would be. Somehow I think a cannonball would be more interesting right now. :)_

I genuinely smile at her words. My son shouts about scoring another goal and I look over at him with foolish pride, knowing that he was the one who taught Bones how and when to use smiley faces on text messages and e-mails. I can still see her face forming that adorable squinty-frown at the screen trying to decipher what emotion the digital screen was trying to convey.

A pair of gracefully delicate arms wrapping around my neck bring me back from the depths of my mind.

"When you didn't answer your phone I figured you guys would still be here. I came straight from work so I don't have a bathing suit but I can still sit here and watch Parker, right?"

Seeing her smile and kiss my lips in greeting forces me to shove all thoughts of Bones to the back of my mind. I tell myself I'm happy. I have my son and my lovely girlfriend with me. What more could I hope for?

Glancing back at the pool I think that maybe a cannonball _would _be nice.

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**A/N: So? Let me know what you think!**


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